BEAN, 17 
barn and stacked up loosely, to become more thoroughly 
dry, and await threshing. In hauling, they are loaded 
up on wagons like hay. 
Threshing and Cleaning.—In the drier climate of 
California, threshing is performed in the open field. 
But it is rarely, if ever, when this may be done in the 
variable climate of the Atlantic section, the practice 
there being to do the threshing in the barn. 
The best bean thresher in present use is the Bidwell 
(Batavia, N. Y.); an ordinary threshing machine is too 
hard on beans, causing too great a loss by splitting. 
After threshing, it is not usual to clean at once, but the 
beans are generally stored in sacks or in bins, for clean- 
ing later on. Should the beans not be well enough 
dried after threshing, they may be dried more thoroughly 
by being spread on the floor an inch or two deep, and 
raking them over from time to time. 
A fan-mill or a seed-cleaner is used for cleaning. 
One cleaning usually suffices; though sometimes two or 
three are necessary, depending on the amount of im- 
purities to be removed. The beans then undergo pick- 
ing, either by hand or on a bean-picking machine. 
The latter apparatus is about the size of an ordinary 
sewing machine. The beans pass through a hopper 
and drop on an endless belt that carries them to the 
girl or boy doing the picking; as the impure beans are 
picked out, the perfect ones are conveyed along and fall 
into a tub or bin. After being hand-picked, the stock 
will be in marketable condition. 
To Save Finest Seed for Private Use.—To have 
the finest, plumpest, and best matured seed, leave on 
the plants all pods which are the earliest to mature, and 
which present the most perfect shape and size, and are true 
to type; pick off all other pods as they show themselves. 
2 
